T stands for....notepads from recycling materials!

Last week I showed you some gelli prints I made. I LOVE making them, but....

WTH SHOULD I USE THEM FOR? I'm not a collage girl, so that wasn't it. As a background for my watercolors? Too busy most of the time. But then during the weekend, it hit me like a hammer. I follow a lady over on Blueskyand she makes the most wonderful notepads, sketchbooks etc. from recycling materials.

So here we go. I lately rescued some large desktop calendars from the office paper bin. Lots and lots of white unused paper with a calendar from 2012. Cut off the calendar and you have enough paper to fill hundreds of little notepads and sketchbooks.

I found a cutting wheel in my stash, that can cut perforated lines. Perfect! 

For the cardboard to make the covers durable, I used cardboard envelopes, packages from tea bags or the cardboard pieces, that come with t-shirts or undies. I even saw someone use the packages from tablets or C tests. They all get covered with nice papers, so it doesn't matter.

I used my prints on the outside and added some stamps to add more interest. For the inside I used old gift wrapping paper or the not so nice prints/ghost prints.

That was a botanical print, that turned out not so nice.

I made five notepads with perforated pages, so you can rip them out. When the paper is all used up, you an always cut the thread binding and add new paper, just in case you like the cover too much to throw away. I used a mix of bought and handmade stamps to decorate the notepads.

The 5th notepad was decorated with a feather print. One of the favorites from my very first printing session.

Nice contrast and the feather seems to float above the surface.

And with a good cup of milk coffee, all the cutting and glueing and sewing is easy. :)

 

Sharing with "T stands for...." by Bleubeard and Elizabeth.

T stands for....gelli printing!

Hey there! How are you on T Day? Drinks ready?

Yesterday evening I felt the urge to disappear in the basement equipped with my gelli plate. During lunch break I watched some videos about botanical prints made with the gelli plate. I already tried my hand on this technique, but I wasn't happy with the outcome. So back to watch some videos and learn more, before giving it another try. Much more happy with yesterday's outcome.  The ghost print with the fish on top was an attempt on another technique, but I couldn't remember the single steps properly, so I failed.

Some close-ups. Here with different grass species.

A sedum flower and vetch leaves.

A sedum flower, grass and rose leaves.

A kind of "negative" print in two layers. First layer is a dark mix of colors, then overprinted with a lighter layer of color.

All these grasses, leaves and lovely flowers came from my garden. They remind of herbal tea. Do you like herbal teas (or infusions, if named correctly)? I drink them a lot, sometimes homegrown leaves directly from the garden or in teabags. The one below is among my favorites, a blend of peppermint and chamomile.

 

Sharing with "T stands for...."!

T stands for....gin!

Do you like gin? I do. OK, most of the times, as there are big differences, like in any other drink, right. Thanks to my brother I discovered a delicious winter drink named "Glüh-Gin". It contains:

40 to 60 ml gin

250 ml apple and orange juice each

cinnamon

2 cloves

a bit of star anise

optional: lemon juice, ginger

Put the gin in a cup or glass. Mix the other ingredients in a pot and simmer on low heat for about 15-20 minutes. Pour over the gin and enjoy. You can decorate the cup with slices of orange and cinnamon sticks.

Last week I showed you some stamps I bought from a friend. I colored them now with colored pencils. Still need to try with watercolors. Hope you like.

Sharing with "T stands for...." by Bleubeard and Elisabeth.

T stands for.... "Tea. Earl Grey. Hot."

Hello and welcome to "T stands for...." by Bleubeard and Elizabeth. What's on my art table this week? I wasn't in the mood to paint or draw a lot, so I rummaged through a parcel with stamps, that I got from a friend. Mostly birds/animals of course.

Adding some color to them later.

Fell in love with this bear. Would make a great birthday card.

I also put some stamps from my stash on gift tags. Always good to have some on hand.

Earlier this week I talked with a coworker about our favorite teas. I'm with Jean-Luc Picard.

Twinings is my favorite brand.

Sharing with "T stands for...." by Bleubeard and Elizabeth.

 

Friday Face OFF (FFO): Squirrel Faces

My dear friend Nicole literally forced me to come over and join her Friday Face OFF. As you might know, I'm not a big fan of drawing humans or human faces, so I go with some cute squirrel faces.

I LOVE to draw and paint birds, but promised to be braver this year and draw other animals. So here are some red squirrels (or Eurasian squirrels). I found a brown colored pencil in my workdesk drawer, so I used it to draw them.

 

T stands for....drinks on the art table!

Everyone of us knows an artist, who dipped the paintbrush in the milk coffee on the art table or spilling tea on a finished piece of art. So that's why cups and glasses are banned from my art table, as these things happened to me more than once, too. *LOL* So how about you: Drinks on the art table - yay or nay?

Soooo, what's on my art table these days? A friend gave me a hint, that these pastel pencils are on sale (due to the fact, that the firm changed the design of the tins). So I decided to get me one of these.

I already had some Pastelmat in my stash, so going with the real good stuff.

I just jumped in and grabbed a free Pixabay photo.

First it looked like a ghost slowly taking shape.

Some color thrown in.

And then I stopped drawing, as I was afraid, that I would overdo it. Love how my frist try with pastel pencils turned out, but I'm sure, there is still much to learn about this technique.

I also learnt something about the tools used with the pastel pencils: how to reeshape and clean a tortillon or blending stump with sandpaper mounted on a wood block. Nice!

Sharing with "T stands for...." by Bleubeard and Elizabeth.

Thursday Art Date with Rain: January 25th

Finally back on track with an art challenge, although I am not going with the prompt this time for Thursday Art Date with Rain, which is "Clocks". But I'd love to participate in the blog hop and see some fine art and food. So here I share some of my "Mittagspausenvögel" with you. I started sketching birds during my lunch break at work some years ago and shared them on Twitter and later Bluesky. Some of them turn into watercolor paintings later. 

Hope you like them as much as I do.

Chickadee, Coal Tit and Blue Tit

Sanderlings

Waxwing and Wren